40 Veggie Wonders: Surprising and Unique Vegetables

The pumpkins we know today evolved to be eaten by giant sloths and wooly mammoths. If ancient humans hadn't taken measures to preserve the pumpkin, it would very certainly be extinct now.

27. All of the necessary amino acids humans need may be found in moringa tree leaves, and the plant's seeds have been demonstrated to filter water. Moringa leaves also contain more iron than spinach, more calcium than milk, and more vitamin A than carrots.

28. Before cane sugar and beet sugar were common in Europe, the parsnip was often used as a sweetener.

29. There is a reason for creating stripes on a cucumber, besides making it look fancy. The skin is slightly bitter and can overwhelm the mellow flesh. Removing a portion of it reduces the bitterness without taking away all the flavor and nutrients.

30. Tomatoes are harvested while still green and are ripened by being exposed to ethylene gas. This gas turns them red, but their flavor remains unchanged and bland.

Some people's aversion to bitter vegetables like cabbage and broccoli is related to genetic variations that increase the amount of a protein in their taste receptors that interacts with phenylthiocarbamide. A very similar compound is found in brassicas, causing a similar reaction.

32. A blooming onion from Outback Steakhouse has 1954 calories, while a pound of onion has just 191 calories.

33. There is as much nicotine in 20 pounds of eggplant as there is in one cigarette. Tomatoes, green peppers, potatoes, eggplants, and cocoa plants also contain trace amounts of nicotine.

34. The Native Americans spent hundreds of years carefully breeding corn to improve its qualities. It was developed from teosinte, a short wild grain that is barely edible.

35. One pound of spinach has about the same number of calories as two Oreos.

All the potatoes used to make fries at Five Guys are required to be grown north of the 42nd parallel.

37. Celery was regarded as a delicacy and one of America's most popular dishes in the early 1900s. The world's celery capital was Kalamazoo, Michigan.

38. In 2010, Korea temporarily lifted duties on napa cabbage and radish imports due to a national crisis caused by excessive rains and agricultural losses, resulting in a shortage of kimchi.

39. If you inhale a pea, it can sprout and grow in your lung. In 2010, a retired teacher was struggling for breath for months and was amazed when doctors told him there was a pea plant growing in his lung.

40. Energy-wise, yam accounts for around 20% of the average Nigerian and West African's daily caloric intake. People's social standing during parties and religious ceremonies is often judged by the amount of their yam holdings, which is why the saying goes, "Yam is food, and food is yam."